Recreation boats are frequently kept in boat stalls, sometimes called boat slips. This is true on fresh water lakes and many smaller boats used on salt water are also housed in boat stalls, particularly boats that are kept in mooring areas in bays, estuaries and inlets along sea coasts. A typical boat dock consisted of a structure having one or many open stalls or slips, each with parallel sidewalls. The slips each have an open end into which the boat enters and from which the boat exits. Walkways are frequently provided around the slip sidewalls.
People who have never operated a boat have little conception of the difficulty of docking a boat under windy or rough water conditions and particularly under a combination of wind and rough water. Steering a boat, particularly at low speeds is difficult since changing the direction of travel of the front of a boat is done indirectly, that is, by changing the relative orientation of the rearward end of the boat, as contrasted with a wheeled vehicle in which steering takes place at the front. With a boat it is very difficult to make immediate changes in the direction of travel and this problem is aggravated by winds, currents or waves or a combination of these three. In any event, docking a boat is difficult and when a boat contacts a dock structure the possibility of damage is significant. Accordingly, a need exists for improved boat dock guides.
For background information relating to facilities for improving boat docks and particularly for guiding boats into and out of a boat dock or for reducing the possibility of damage of a boat while stored in a boat dock, reference can be had to the following previously issued United States patents.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. INVENTOR TITLE ______________________________________ 5133702 Capps Boat and Dock Guard 2754792 Baird Mooring Device For Boats 3084517 Bell Dock Attachment 3151595 Stainbrook Mooring Line Retaining Device 3177839 Nolf Boat-Docking Apparatus With Pressure- Responsive Grapple 3336896 Burnett Ship Docking Device 4679517 Kramer Fender Protecting Structures 4920907 Richter Boat Dock Bumper ______________________________________